Just a quick re-cap: the Best Beloved and I have an autumn project to find out who Aunt Jessie was, and who painted her.
So, this is a long read and there is only one picture
Two strokes of luck and serendipity have got us this far:
Aunt Jessie was Jessamine Thompson, a dressmaker by profession, born 1874 and who died in a mental hospital in 1943.
She lived as head of the household with her brother James and sister Margaret, in Heaton and then by 1939, she was living alone in Jesmond.
We only ever knew her as Aunt Jessie, and had no other information except that she had come down the female line to my BB, and that his mother’s family were based in and around Newcastle.
Having posted about this, it turns out the BB’s niece was smart enough to ask her grandmother (Joan) about Aunt Jessie and to get her grandmother to write out that bit of the family tree – and was is more, she had kept it.
This is what Caroline ( aforementioned niece – it may be hard to keep up with all these family links..) knows:
The picture is Jessimane Thompson. She is Joan’s actual Aunt. Sister of Joan’s mother Margaret Thompson. Daughter of James Thompson and Jane Ellen Watson who married in 1868. Jessimane never married. Her sister Elizabeth did and named her daughter Jessimane
Caroline also said her grandmother had said Aunt Jessie was clever and independent, and indeed she has that air about her.
Meanwhile, as they say, I was Googling trying to find out about the art scene in Newcastle in that period when I came across a really interesting leaflet called Artists in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne 1820 -1900.
(We were pretty sure Aunt Jessie had been painted around the turn of the century judging by the clothes she wears – but what do we know…..)
Anyway, it was a really interesting read and as a long shot, I looked up the author, Gill Hedley, and sent her an email asking if she might be able to point me in the direction of research.
I was thinking she might point me in the direction of an amateur art historian with an interest in the period who might be able to – well, actually I wasn’t sure what.
We have no signature on the painting as far as we have found yet, so identifying the artist and even their relationship is going to require research skills we have yet to discover in ourselves…
The other night, waiting for the kettle to boil as tea in bed with a good book is an essential, I was checking my emails and imagine my delight when I found this:
What a nice email to receive, especially prompted by something I wrote so very many years ago.
I now write more or less full time, largely biographies, so this sort of research piques my interest. I’ll start by saying that it is a very nice painting. I have no instant idea of the artist but am happy to look a bit further. I have looked up Miss Thompson (what a lovely name, Jessamine) on an ancestry site and find she was a dressmaker born 1874, died 1943. Very sadly, that was in a mental hospital as I expect you know Forgive me, if you did not. Perhaps she lost someone 1914-18. She lived with a brother and a sister in Heaton as an adult and was the head of the household. Then in 1939, she was on her own in Jesmond, where I grew up; she was in a street very near where I lived when I wrote that leaflet.
I would guess the portrait was painted before the war, maybe 1910, but why? Did she have a friend who was a professional painter? Maybe the artist was a dressmaking client or his wife was? The artist and the sitter knew each other, clearly. This is not a commission. Intriguing.
I will look at all the portraits in the Tyne and Wear museums collection to start with. These are all on the wonderful ARTUK website but I have it in print form which makes clicking through a bit easier.
How annoying to have no signature. Is there nothing on the back at all? Nothing to be seen anywhere on the front under a very strong raking light? You are safe to use spit on a soft cloth to enable a closer look in either bottom corner…socially distant, of course!
Anyway, your really long shot has found its aim and I will see what I can do.
Best wishes
Gill
What a stroke of amazing luck to find someone who has much better things to do, willing to help.
If you have any doubt that Gill Hedley has better things to do than research Aunt Jessie, see here
And I have found an art restorer who says she will have a look at Aunt Jessie and tell us what is needed to fix her up.
She said it was not necessarily all that common to sign a painting especially if the sitter and the painter knew each other well and the painter was not a big name.
So, even when we get the back off, we may be none the wiser.
I sent a photo to a Newcastle auctioneers to see if they can shed any light and got a reply saying portraits weren’t great sellers – if you don’t have any connection with the person, why have it, except to decorate a room in your B&B and who wants to pay much for that…
He said,
An excellent painting that unfortunately, may struggle to find a market. Portraits are particularly difficult to sell.
Auction value is probably less than £60. We would accept this for auction but you should consider carefully before proceeding.
I take this as meaning, please don’t put this into an auction ( not that we ever would.)
So, here we are so far.
But who was Elizabeth mentioned by Joan in her family tree conversation as we know that Jessamine had a sister Margaret ( mother of Joan) and a brother James who are in the records.
So, to add mystery. An ancestry site records an Elizabeth Thomson, daughter of James and Jane Ellen ( Jessamine’s parents’ names) and she was christened in September 1874.
Which is the same birth year as Jessamine.
But there is no mention of her except for Caroline’s record that she married and had a daughter which she named Jessamine….
And who painted Aunt Jessie?
thereluctanthousewife 